What's the difference between hint and tell?

Hint


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To bring to mind by a slight mention or remote allusion; to suggest in an indirect manner; as, to hint a suspicion.
  • (v. i.) To make an indirect reference, suggestion, or allusion; to allude vaguely to something.
  • (n.) A remote allusion; slight mention; intimation; insinuation; a suggestion or reminder, without a full declaration or explanation; also, an occasion or motive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The tunes weren't quite as easy and lush as they had been, and hints of dissonance crept in.
  • (2) "Hints that the license fee payer will be hit are the closest the Tories come to explaining how they intend to pay for this."
  • (3) There is never any chink in her composure – any hint of tension – and while I can't imagine what it must feel like to be so at ease with one's world, I don't think she is faking it.
  • (4) Following a first-half surrender, they performed appreciably better in the second period with little cameos hinting at better days to come – eventually.
  • (5) #IfTheyGunnedMeDown tackled the way in which people of colour, especially men, are represented in the media (hint: usually as thuggish and criminal).
  • (6) In addition, practical hints on other means of retention are offered, with the emphasis on nuisance-free and easy application.
  • (7) Henry had hinted during a recent interview with French newspaper L’Equipe he could be interested in a future coaching role with the Gunners, and Wenger insisted on Tuesday that Henry’s return is a certainty when asked about a reunion with the former France striker.
  • (8) | Amy Lawrence Read more Sampdoria have already expressed their interest in bringing Balotelli back to the league where he has represented both Internazionale and Milan, and now Bologna’s director of sport, Pantaleo Corvino, has hinted at a loan deal.
  • (9) The slogan will be unveiled at a rally in Warwick tomorrow, but Alexander gave no hint of Gordon Brown calling an election before 6 May, emphasising the need for a slow reappraisal of Labour to take root.
  • (10) While Chinese media have not spelt out Zhou's woes explicitly, the hints have grown more blatant by the month, with some identifying him via his family relationships.
  • (11) Governor Mark Carney once hinted that a UK rate rise might be on the horizon.
  • (12) In a speech focused on national security, Liam Fox , who is trailing his fellow Tory leadership candidates in terms of support from MPs, hinted that he had doubts that a candidate without significant experience could handle the job.
  • (13) It would have been unprecedented for a large bloc such as the Freedom Caucus to have voted against the party’s choice of nominee, as they had hinted they might do with Webster.
  • (14) Furthermore it was possible to confirm the postoperative space of time needed until restoration of an undisturbed bladder function as a relatively reliable prognostic hint to the expected success of the operation.
  • (15) I got a hint of the price she has paid for her ambidextrous approach to cultural identify after her last interview was published, when a shocking number of British Pakistani men got in touch to denounce her as a shameful infidel.
  • (16) This is no time for partisan politics | Simon Jenkins Read more Downing Street has also hinted that the 1% cap on public sector pay increases could be lifted in the autumn budget, after a growing number of Tory MPs aired their concerns about the policy continuing.
  • (17) He has remained mostly out of sight since his defeat, but recently, while stopping short of any explicit pledge of a comeback, he and his entourage have dropped heavy hints that he may return to the frontline of French politics to "save" the country.
  • (18) It's set in Tokyo, presumably for the Nakatomi connection, and Trebilcook hinted on Twitter that we might see some old faces again.
  • (19) In an article for the Sunday Times, Cameron hinted that other nations in Europe – many of them dependent on Russian gas – are less willing to consider sanctions that could hit their own economies.
  • (20) There has been nothing explicit to confirm as much, but the hints have been there.

Tell


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To mention one by one, or piece by piece; to recount; to enumerate; to reckon; to number; to count; as, to tell money.
  • (v. t.) To utter or recite in detail; to give an account of; to narrate.
  • (v. t.) To make known; to publish; to disclose; to divulge.
  • (v. t.) To give instruction to; to make report to; to acquaint; to teach; to inform.
  • (v. t.) To order; to request; to command.
  • (v. t.) To discern so as to report; to ascertain by observing; to find out; to discover; as, I can not tell where one color ends and the other begins.
  • (v. t.) To make account of; to regard; to reckon; to value; to estimate.
  • (v. i.) To give an account; to make report.
  • (v. i.) To take effect; to produce a marked effect; as, every shot tells; every expression tells.
  • (n.) That which is told; tale; account.
  • (n.) A hill or mound.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Michael James, 52, from Tower Hamlets Three days after telling his landlord that the flat upstairs was a deathtrap, Michael James was handed an eviction notice.
  • (2) In platform shoes to emulate Johnson's height, and with the aid of prosthetic earlobes, Cranston becomes the 36th president: he bullies and cajoles, flatters and snarls and barks, tells dirty jokes or glows with idealism as required, and delivers the famous "Johnson treatment" to everyone from Martin Luther King to the racist Alabama governor George Wallace.
  • (3) Today’s figures tell us little about the timing of the first increase in interest rates, which will depend on bigger picture news on domestic growth, pay trends and perceived downside risks in the global economy,” he said.
  • (4) Anytime they feel parts of the Basic Law are not up to their current standards of political correctness, they will change it and tell Hong Kong courts to obey.
  • (5) "With hyperspectral imaging, you can tell the chemical content of a cake just by taking a photo of it.
  • (6) I think he had been saying all season that with three or four games to go he will tell us where we are.
  • (7) I can see you use humour as a defence mechanism, so in return I could just tell you that if he's massively rich or famous and you've decided you'll put up with it to please him, you'll eventually discover it's not worth it.
  • (8) Are you ready to vote?” is the battle cry, and even the most superficial of glances at the statistics tells why.
  • (9) But what they take for a witticism might very well be true; most of Ellis's novels tell more or less the same story, about the same alienated ennui, and maybe they really are nothing more than the fictionalised diaries of an unremarkably unhappy man.
  • (10) On Friday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry appeared to confirm those fears, telling reporters that the joint declaration, a deal negotiated by London and Beijing guaranteeing Hong Kong’s way of life for 50 years, “was a historical document that no longer had any practical significance”.
  • (11) Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall tried to liven things up, but there are only so many ways to tell us to be nice to chickens.
  • (12) David Hamilton tells me: “The days of westerners leading expeditions to Nepal will pass.
  • (13) If Del Bosque really want to win this World Cup thingymebob, then he has got to tell Iker Casillas that the jig is up, correct?
  • (14) Will African film-makers tell those kind of films differently?
  • (15) July 7, 2016 Verified account A blue tick that tells you the user is either an A-list celebrity, a respected authority on an important subject or a BuzzFeed employee.
  • (16) The education secretary's wife, Sarah Vine, a columnist, said her son William, nine, and daughter Beatrice, 11, now realise how much their father is hated for his position in government because other children tell them in the playground.
  • (17) You can tell them that Deutsche Bank remains absolutely rock solid, given our strong capital and risk position.
  • (18) The debate certainly hit upon a larger issue: the tendency for people in positions of social and cultural power to tell the stories of minorities for them, rather than allowing minority communities to speak for themselves.
  • (19) In saying what he did, he was not telling any frequent flyer something they didn't already know, and he was not protesting about any newly adopted measures.
  • (20) Blight responded with a hypothetical, telling Ludlam if the ASD asked a foreign agency to get material about Australian citizens it could not access under Australian law, the IGIS would know about it and flag it in its annual report.